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Bruce Ivins Wasn't the Anthrax Culprit
wsj.com ^ | August 5, 2008 | RICHARD SPERTZEL

Posted on 08/04/2008 8:03:43 PM PDT by Free ThinkerNY

Over the past week the media was gripped by the news that the FBI was about to charge Bruce Ivins, a leading anthrax expert, as the man responsible for the anthrax letter attacks in September/October 2001.

But despite the seemingly powerful narrative that Ivins committed suicide because investigators were closing in, this is still far from a shut case. The FBI needs to explain why it zeroed in on Ivins, how he could have made the anthrax mailed to lawmakers and the media, and how he (or anyone else) could have pulled off the attacks, acting alone.

I believe this is another mistake in the investigation.

Let's start with the anthrax in the letters to Sens. Tom Daschle and Patrick Leahy. The spores could not have been produced at the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases, where Ivins worked, without many other people being aware of it. Furthermore, the equipment to make such a product does not exist at the institute.

Information released by the FBI over the past seven years indicates a product of exceptional quality. The product contained essentially pure spores. The particle size was 1.5 to 3 microns in diameter. There are several methods used to produce anthrax that small. But most of them require milling the spores to a size small enough that it can be inhaled into the lower reaches of the lungs. In this case, however, the anthrax spores were not milled.

What's more, they were also tailored to make them potentially more dangerous. According to a FBI news release from November 2001, the particles were coated by a "product not seen previously to be used in this fashion before." Apparently, the spores were coated with a polyglass which tightly bound hydrophilic silica to each particle.

(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...


TOPICS: Anthrax Scare; Editorial
KEYWORDS: 911; amerithrax; anthrax; bruceivins; fbi; wot
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1 posted on 08/04/2008 8:03:43 PM PDT by Free ThinkerNY
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To: Free ThinkerNY

i don’t know how he can say that with any certainty.

most likely, the truth may never be known.


2 posted on 08/04/2008 8:09:35 PM PDT by ken21 (people die and you never hear from them again.)
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To: Free ThinkerNY

Without making the jump to the article (having read what is here) is there any mention made of the anthrax that was mailed to the weekly tabloid in Florida?


3 posted on 08/04/2008 8:12:56 PM PDT by weegee (Hi there.)
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To: ken21

He makes his case in his essay why he thinks Ivins could not have done it. I am not in a position to evaluate his case, but it is an interesting one.


4 posted on 08/04/2008 8:19:41 PM PDT by JLS
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To: JLS

here’s another take.

but it doesn’t say much either.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/04/us/04anthrax.html?_r=1&scp=2&sq=ivins&st=cse&oref=slogin


5 posted on 08/04/2008 8:25:57 PM PDT by ken21 (people die and you never hear from them again.)
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To: weegee

No, he doesn’t mention that specific case.


6 posted on 08/04/2008 8:26:32 PM PDT by Free ThinkerNY ((((Stop the Obamanation!))))
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To: Free ThinkerNY

I remember reading that all the indicators in this case pointed to Iraq, Saddam Hussein and his female Biological Warfare scientist (Dr. Death?).


7 posted on 08/04/2008 8:27:57 PM PDT by PhiloBedo (I won't be happy until Jet-A is $2.00 a gallon)
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To: Free ThinkerNY

Called CYA,we’re never wrong and we always get our man.


8 posted on 08/04/2008 8:32:26 PM PDT by silentreignofheroes (Old Dogs and Children,and Watermelon Wine.)
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To: PhiloBedo

I remember reading that all the indicators in this case pointed to Iraq, Saddam Hussein and his female Biological Warfare scientist (Dr. Death?).


What I find hard to understand is why Saddam would seek to kill liberals like Senators Daschle and Libby and liberal members of the MSM.


9 posted on 08/04/2008 8:37:13 PM PDT by FFranco
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To: Free ThinkerNY

“Let’s start with the anthrax in the letters to Sens. Tom Daschle and Patrick Leahy. “

What ‘committees’ are these two on that might involve knowledge that IRAQ was developing and preparing to use anthrax?

Were there some ‘test samples’ from the Middle East (or Russia), sent to this facility that Ivins worked at?

Was someone trying to ‘warn’ the public by doing this?

Did some politicians ‘know’ the terrorists were planning to send this anthrax to selected locations, and yet were trying to keep it secret, so someone decided to ‘punish’ them with a taste of the same ‘medicine’?


10 posted on 08/04/2008 8:40:51 PM PDT by UCANSEE2
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To: Free ThinkerNY

The major thrust of this article is the idea that the strain of anthrax involved could not have been developed at the Ft. Detrick facility where Ivins worked.

What isn’t addressed is why it should be accepted that Ivins, for all of his reported brilliance, could not have developed the applicable anthrax strain OUTSIDE of the facility where he worked.


11 posted on 08/04/2008 8:42:55 PM PDT by mkjessup
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To: FFranco

Libby = Leahy


12 posted on 08/04/2008 8:44:51 PM PDT by FFranco
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To: Free ThinkerNY
Please stop published how to manuals for biological warfare terrorists. And don't stick your tongue in the electrical outlets, either. Thank you very much.
13 posted on 08/04/2008 8:52:21 PM PDT by JasonC
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To: FFranco

1. The anthrax was military quality.
2. Only dead person worked at the Globe (weekly tabloid) in Florida.
3. Globe ran then and continues to run pics and stories hostile to Seantor Clinton.
4. Senator Daschle wanted to run for President.
5. Who had access to U.S. personnel and labs from 1993-2001?


14 posted on 08/04/2008 8:52:25 PM PDT by bIlluminati (Don't tread on me!)
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To: Free ThinkerNY
The FBI needs to explain why it zeroed in on Ivins, how he could have made the anthrax mailed to lawmakers and the media, and how he (or anyone else) could have pulled off the attacks, acting alone.

Seems to be the way the gubmt investigates everything....

Step One: Decide that there is one, or maybe two culprits.

Step Two: Tailor your investigation around that fact.

Step Three: Do not veer away from the target in Step One, even if the facts do not support it.

15 posted on 08/04/2008 8:54:09 PM PDT by Mr. Brightside
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To: bIlluminati

Now you’re pointing at the Clintons. My question was why Saddam would want to kill liberal Americans. I would expect Saddam would want to kill conservatives, who would be more dangerous to him, than liberals who would probably want to appease him.


16 posted on 08/04/2008 8:57:28 PM PDT by FFranco
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To: weegee
These guys keep avoiding the Florida situation yet we have the very best trace information there. The anthrax envelope (or package) was spilling spores at a very low level in its travel through three different postal facilities ~

One of the earliest "maps" showed contamination near the customer service part of the Boca Raton post office (that is, near the inside letter drop).

You really didn't get that in the other contaminated facilities with the later letters ~ by that time the paper was saturated with spores and was spreadin them like crazy ~ plus, they were being blown around obscuring the trail of contamination.

FBI investigators have also regularly ignored the fact that in the lead-up to the discovery of the attack USPS managed to have tens of thousands of letter trays and flat trays and other equipment contaminated with anthrax spores. Consequently most of their "major finds" regarding contaminated mailboxes, etc. are absolutely meaningless!

17 posted on 08/04/2008 8:59:05 PM PDT by muawiyah (We need a "Gastank For America" to win back Congress)
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To: ken21

I think that he’s basin these assertions on what he intimately knows about the facilities at Ft. Detrick, where he used to work as well as Ivins.


18 posted on 08/04/2008 9:02:04 PM PDT by NVDave
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To: NVDave

yes.

i know nothing about it.

what struck me reading both the nyt and wsj print editions this morning over coffee was the reactions of the u.s. senators and congressmen.

that would indicate something’s amiss.


19 posted on 08/04/2008 9:05:01 PM PDT by ken21 (people die and you never hear from them again.)
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To: UCANSEE2; PhiloBedo; FFranco; freethinker
Answer on the selection of the addresss. A Jews For Life bulletin was published on the internet on their site in June 2001.

Whatever the issue was the two senators and Tom Brokaw managed to get named in the same article, and their addresses were listed for the purpose of Jews For Life members writing to them on the issue.

The addresses were prepared in a peculiar format quite typical of that used in a certain software program which had been popular for 3 or 4 years.

A work associate of mine went searching the internet for the Daschle address in exactly the format shown (with the "peculiar" "building" abbreviation), and found that bulletin in seconds. All the addresses on the letters follow the exact same format as the addresses printed in the bulletin ~ including ERRORS.

I have hypothesized many times that the Jews for Life site would have been quickly identified by later anthrax attack investigators with the result, so hoped the attackers, that Jews For Life would be blamed for the attack.

This is consistent with AlQaida supporters having prepared beforehand posters showing airliners hitting the WTC ~ said posters blaming the Jews for the attacks.

So, whoever the attacker was he/she wanted to have Jews targeted by the authorities.

I know that suggests that AlQaida and their little friends think of the FBI as being rather stupid, but what can I say? AlQaida certainly understood their enemy eh!

20 posted on 08/04/2008 9:07:38 PM PDT by muawiyah (We need a "Gastank For America" to win back Congress)
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